The Macculloch Family

Knowing the historic context and experiences of the Macculloch family are crucial for understanding the choices they made and items they purchased. The sections below highlight three aspects of the Macculloch family: their culture and customs, enslaved people and racial attitudes, and travel. Each contribute to the fuller picture of why George Macculloch might have been interested in a Campeche chair.

Cultures and Customs

The Macculloch family emigrated from London to New Jersey in 1806 and moved to Morristown in 1810. George Macculloch was born in Bombay, India in 1775 and by the age of 8 was living with his paternal grandmother on their family estate in Barholm, Scotland. Though we know very little about Louisa Sanderson Macculloch's life before she met and married George, we know that together the Maccullochs brough culture and customs from Britain, some of which were rooted in Colonial British culture in Indian and cosmopolitan life near or in port cities. For example, Louisa's recipe books make routine use of curry, ginger, and cardamom. She baked with coconut. The Maccullochs overwintered citrus trees. These were not customs practiced by many people in Morristown in the first half of the 19th century. The Macculloch family's library, their correspondence, their habits of business and philanthropy offer glimpses into how one locally prominent immigrant family lived in Morristown, New Jersey during the 19th century.

Campeche Chairs Roots in Southern Plantation Culture

Since George and Louisa Macculloch were cosmopolitan when they arrived in Morristown, they were aware of fashionable trends, including those related to furniture. Since George Macculloch also identified as a gentleman farmer, one who manages but does not work the farm, he was influenced by the life and work of perhaps the most famous gentleman farmer at the time, Thomas Jefferson. The Campeche chair, a chair identified with fine living on plantations in the south. Today, we might consider this a status symbol.

Key to southern plantation farming life was enslavement. The Macculloch family owned enslaved men, women, and children on their farm in Morristown. We know that in 1810 George and Louisa Macculloch arrived in Morristown with their daughter Mary Louisa and son Francis and, three enslaved adults: Cato, Susan, and Betty, and a toddler, Emma. Since no legal requirements existed to record slave sales, it is not known when or where George purchased them. The Morris County manumission records have not survived, so there is no record of their being freed.

We know from the family Bible the names of the children born into slavery at Macculloch Hall: William (1811), Henry (1814), and Helen (1817). Their Bible does not name the parents. However, there is some additional information in birth certificates filed with the county clerk. This registration was required by the 1804 Gradual Emancipation Act. On January 8, 1812, George Macculloch registered the births of Emma “on or about September 1809, mother Susan”, and William “April 18, 1811, mother Susan”. No record is noted about the father. It also seems that Henry and Helen’s birth were not registered.

Very little is known about the enslaved men, women, and children at Macculloch Hall. With one exception, they are not mentioned in the surviving archive of family letters and documents. Although not mentioned, we know that their forced servitude, together with the paid labor of men and women in the area, enabled the Maccullochs to run their house and farm.

Click on the link at the bottom of the page to learn more about the history of enslavement and the changing racial attitudes at Macculloch Hall in the 19th- and 20th- centuries.

Travel

George Macculloch was well traveled before he settled in Morristown. Before he emigrated, he worked in Paris and Holland, where he saw canals that sparked inspiration for the Morris Canal. In 1802 George was in Madrid, Spain as the confidential agent of the Directors of the East India Company, meaning he negotiated prices with local merchants for goods from East India Company ships.

From Morristown, George regularly travelled to Philadelphia, New York City, West point, and Washington D.C. In April 1835, he wrote to his son about a visit there where he met with President Andrew Jackson.